INTERVIEW: Mark Robins Previews This Weekend's Trip To Charlton

Sky Blues boss Mark Robins is expecting another difficult game this weekend, as his side travel to the Valley to face Charlton Athletic in League One action.

City head into the game on the back of home games against two of the top six, in the form of Sunderland and Portsmouth.

This weekend, the Addicks are the opponents and despite a defeat midweek for Lee Bowyer’s side, Robins is expecting them to try and bounce back.

He said: “They are all tough.

“Saturday is a tough game away from home. It’s a good league, with a good stadium, a good team, they’ve just lost 5-3 to Scunthorpe and looking to bounce back.

“It has got the makings of a good game and we will be looking forward to it, frustrations are there but we’ve got to keep doing what we are doing, and things will fall into place.

“If looking at who we have left, it’s about 2 defenders, but they are in the same boat down at Charlton.

“Page got injured with a groin strain on Tuesday, looks like he will miss out, so they got to shuffle their back four.

“Brandon Mason joined training for the first time yesterday, tomorrow’s game will be too early for him, but he will train tomorrow morning then be in contention for Tuesday night.”

As the Sky Blues adjust back to life in League One, Mark Robins was reflecting on how they have faired in the division so far.

Highlighting the need to score more goals and create better chances in order to find the back of the net.

“At the moment we are not scoring enough, we are creating some chances, not brilliant chances, that’s got to improve and will improve.

“I’m giving opportunities to players and they need to give more and they know that and everybody is aware of it. It’s a fact that we haven’t scored enough goals for my liking.

“We’ve got in good positions but for some reason we just don’t have the calmness to finish the chance off. Sometimes we are over playing.

“When looking at top six teams a lot of teams will be looking at that, some clubs have a head start in their plan, looking at Portsmouth, being in the league a couple of seasons now, they’ve looked like a team that mean business this year.

“We are a work in progress at the moment, we want to be up their fighting, but we need the time to build, but we are not that far off and two moments cost us minimum of a point.

“We look for all the world to be a threat this season, we have just got to keep working and see where that takes us over the next weeks and months, but there is still a lot of work to do.

“When we get promoted at first attempt and then we’ve got to rebuild again, as that was what was needed. You almost start again and the momentum from last season went with McNulty, so we are going back to the start of the development phase but a level higher, ultimately, we are where we are which is understandable, but we are step ahead in terms of the way we play and the way we are going about business.”